This week is the last episode in this series. The tables are turned and, Unity, Bunny’s daughter, as well as being the sound engineer, quizzes Bunny on her life, career and her garden. There is an accompanying YouTube video on Bunny’s YouTube channel ‘The Guinness Girls gossip about Life and Gardening‘ which illustrates various aspect of Bunny’s life they chat about. This will go up on or just before, Friday 20th December. Happy Christmas and we hope you have enjoyed this series. #family #guinne...
Dec 13, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 51
This week Bunny is in the garden with nursery women Claire Austin. Claire is the daughter of rose breeder David Austin (Senior) and worked with him following leaving Art College. Claire admits being more influenced by her mother, who also went to art college and was the gardener in their family. Although when Pat died, her father, David took it over and radically altered it. Claire set up her own nursery growing perennials, irises and peonies and admits to really not liking roses as garden plant...
Dec 06, 2024•37 min•Ep. 50
Today Bunny is in the garden with of Caryn Hibbert, founder and director of Thyme and the Bertiolli Brand. Caryn started life as a medic, an obstetrician and gynaecologist whilst having and bringing up 3 children. Then in the early 2000 Caryn changed tack and started developing her own business. Hear about the problems of combining medicine and a family, her brilliant father’s invention and her amazing water meadows with their extraordinary bird and wild flower populations plus golden moles! See...
Nov 29, 2024•59 min•Ep. 49
Today Bunny is in the Garden with Sir Roderick Victor Llewelyn. Better known as Roddy. Roddy is a gardening journalist, author and garden designer. He had a weekly column in the Sunday Mail for 12 years. His father, the legendary Sir Harry Llewelyn, was the David Beckham of the day, an Olympic gold medallist in Show Jumping, and came second in the Grand National. His horse Foxhunter had a chain of cafes named after him. As a present Bunny gave Roddy a Hand Widger from KENT and Stowe Westland, wh...
Nov 22, 2024•58 min•Ep. 48
Today Bunny is in the garden with Lulu Guinness OBE. Lulu talks about her approach to design, how she loves creating original designs whether for handbags, interior design, gardens or clothing. Several of her iconic handbags are in the V and A museum. Before setting up her business, Lulu was a model (probably the smallest one then in the world) a backing singer in Valentine Guinness’s band, and she made corporate videos. Lulu and Bunny discuss what its like becoming a Guinness! #luluguinness #ho...
Nov 15, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 47
Bunny is in the garden with David Haig MBE an extremely keen gardener though his famous face is familiar to many as Bernard in ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’, Jim Hacker in the film of ‘Yes Minister’ and has appeared in ‘Killing Eve’, and the Downton Abbey film too. He is also a celebrated playwright, he wrote ‘My Boy Jack’ where he not only penned the play but also played Rudyard Kipling with Daniel Radcliffe as his son. David loves the rain and understands a fair bit about our climate having wr...
Nov 08, 2024•57 min•Ep. 46
Carole Boyd has been in the Archers since the mid 80’s. Following her training at the City of Birmingham University she then won BBC’s Carlton Hobbs award which involved a 6 month contract with BBC Radio Drama Company. But she started acting age 3, when, whilst being bored in long cinema queues, she used to sing and dance to entertain the other queue members. Carole voices all the female voices on ‘Postman Pat’, fell in love with Laurence Olivier in her early teens, and looked after her husband ...
Nov 01, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 45
Today Bunny is chatting to Melanie Reid MBE, about her garden in Scotland. Melaine Reid is best known for her weekly ‘Spinal Column’ in The Times magazine, which discusses disability and her life as a tetraplegic, following a serious riding accident. Bunny and Melanie, chat about how she got into riding, the accident, dark humour in hospitals and aftercare. They talk about how gardening is good at reducing pain, and the positive effects the Horatio’s Gardens have had on spinal wards. For Melanie...
Oct 25, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 44
Today, Bunny chats to George Monbiot, sadly not in his garden as it is a building site, but we hear all about his plans for the garden, which he is working on with his partner, Rebecca Wriggly. Rebecca is Chief Executive of Rewilding Britain. Bunny and George chat about why George had an unhappy time at Oxford difficult, (he had an open scholarship) though enjoyed his course, his several near death experiences, his thoughts on whether Bunny should change her diesel car to electric and where he b...
Oct 18, 2024•57 min•Ep. 43
Bunny is in Edward Bulmer’s beautiful, renovated Queen Anne house in rural Herefordshire. Edwards family started the Cider firm, but Edward, having done a history of Art degree found that working in design was what really fascinated him. Apart from being a prominent interior designer, he has his design shop in London, and has founded his natural paint firm, Edward Bulmer Natural Paints. Edward is really a frustrated Landscape Architect, and in his own garden has restored a historic water garden,...
Oct 11, 2024•59 min•Ep. 42
Bunny is with the world famous fashion and textile designer Dame Zandra Rhodes in her zany 9th Floor flat in London, which has tiny outdoor spaces that face south, north and west. Despite Zandra having designed clothes for numerous super stars such as Freddie Mercury, Princess Diana and Princess Anne, Zandra has a very down to earth side being passionate about making her own bread, listening to the Archers and Gardeners’ Question Time and of course creating her spectacular garden. Her home is fi...
Oct 03, 2024•56 min•Ep. 41
I must come clean, Rachel is not green fingered, but she has had an eventful life and talks about visiting her high achieving brothers garden at Chequers while he was PM. We are later joined by her husband Ivo Dawney, who is a keen gardener, and was a director and consultant to the National Trust. He tells us about visiting Chevening House, which was the home of Boris while he was foreign secretary, and about how he persuaded the National Trust to open up the Big Brother House and garden to get ...
Sep 27, 2024•59 min•Ep. 40
Today Bunny is in Isabella Tree’s ground breaking Walled Garden at the Knepp Estate. They start off in the more private garden by the stunning Knepp Castle before going into the Walled Garden that has been totally reworked creating hills and hollows to replace a flat croquet lawn and Traditional Kitchen garden. Lots of sand and crushed concrete have been added and the various aspects of the newly created slopes have been exploited to create a greater range of plant habitats to produce a greater ...
Sep 20, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 39
In this episode Bunny chats to the renown homeware designer Sophie Allport in her beautiful east midlands garden. Sophie’s range of homewares are inspired by nature, the British countryside, dogs and her busy family life. Listen to how Sophie started the business, got her first break at the country living faire, and went from designing mugs to textiles. Despite many heartbreaks along the way, learn how Sophie and her brother Jem make it work as a family business. Bunny had designed the garden fo...
Sep 13, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 38
In the second of these two episodes top football correspondent, Henry Winter talks to Bunny in his Rutland garden about the importance of football to the economics of the country (somewhat larger than horticulture) and how footballers can have a huge influence on excellent causes such as school dinners, autism and planting trees. His brother Tim (aka Abdal Hakim Murad), says of Henry "I was always the clever, successful one. Henry just wanted to play football with his mates. I used to tell him, ...
Sep 06, 2024•48 min•Ep. 37
In the first of these two episodes top football correspondent, Henry Winter talks to Bunny in his Rutland garden about the importance of football to the economics of the country (somewhat larger than horticulture) and how footballers can have a huge influence on excellent causes such as school dinners, autism and planting trees. His brother Tim (aka Abdal Hakim Murad), says of Henry "I was always the clever, successful one. Henry just wanted to play football with his mates. I used to tell him, ‘...
Aug 30, 2024•52 min•Ep. 36
In this episode Bunny talks to Bob Flowerdew in his Norfolk garden. They talk about his previous work before he started gardening professionally which include chicken giblet washer (advancing to chicken box counter), council care-home cleaner, dog impersonator, glass fibre laminator, houseboy & cook in house of ill repute, festival security lighting engineer, marine engineer, museum attendant, nude model, Parisian guide, theatrical gofer, vitreous enamel applicator, arcade mechanic & pin...
Aug 23, 2024•56 min•Ep. 35
In this episode Bunny chats to Tony Kirkham MBE in his South London garden. Tony Kirkham talks about his life growing with trees. He was voted one of the most influential Londoners in 2016 but in fact he has a huge influence world-wide. He is extremely pleased The BBC Radio 4 program ‘The Archers’ is now highlighting tree surgeons, but is concerned that vast quantities of trees are being planted in a way that ends up with poor specimens or dead trees and points out that in 50 years time the UK m...
Aug 16, 2024•55 min•Ep. 34
Today Bunny is in the garden with the star of BBC’s hit series ‘Normal for Norfolk’ Desmond MacCarthy. Desmond talks about his beloved home, the Dutch gabled Jacobean, flint faced Wiveton Hall and how he has spent his life putting his energies into his family home with just a 250 acre farm to support it. The series was the precursor to Clarkson’s Farm, showing just how difficult it is today to raise enough income from farming. Desmond boosted the profile of the house through the tv series and ha...
Aug 09, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 33
This week Bunny is in best selling author Caitlin Moran’s garden. Caitlin is a best selling author, was the youngest broadsheet columnist for years and wrote her first book at 13. Bunny regards her as the nation’s psychotherapist as she takes problems we all have, makes them hilarious but gives us the tools to sort them. You always feel better informed having read her advice but will also have split your sides and will be empowered to embrace your conundrums with a lighter heart. Caitlin uses he...
Aug 02, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 32
Bunny chats to Her Grace, The Duchess of Rutland, Emma, in her gardens at Belvoir Castle. Emma talks about her life and gardens, including how she won a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music to study opera singing, before changing direction and training as a land agent. Emma has completed many ambitious projects at Belvoir, including recreating the Capability Brown scheme for Belvoir Castle which was Brown’s final scheme, plus creating The Engine Yard, a retail village next to the castle,...
Jul 26, 2024•51 min•Ep. 31
Bunny is talking to Emma Bridgewater in her seaside garden. Emma tells Bunny about starting up her business at the tender age of 23 - it now has a turnover of £30,000,000 - and how her stepfather’s accountant ‘begged her to desist’, not realising her determination, and how she wanted to help revive and preserve the pottery tradition at the potteries at Stoke-on-Trent. The days the factory not only produces thousands of pieces of pottery each week, but also has a factory garden, where she holds a...
Jul 18, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 30
Caroline Haughey OBE KC talks to Bunny in her idyllic garden (with its own cricket pitch) about the problems of modern slavery, how she works with the police and crime writers for TV dramas, and her love of boots! Caroline uses her outdoor spaces as a counterpoint to her frenetic life. Despite having a life time phobia of soil, she still loves gardening. Her mother (who also ran her own legal practice) is an amazing gardener, and together with Caroline’s her late father, Baron Ballyedmond, who w...
Jul 12, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 29
Bunny chats to David Austin Junior in his Shropshire garden. David Austin Junior is the son of the world-famous rose breeder, David Austin OBE who died in 2018. David (who is Bunny’s cousin) joined his father in the family business, after running a jewellery business for eight years with his first wife. David has always had a keen interest in business, which he combines with a passion for roses. David talks about how he grew up with the rose business as a child, how he realised that his father’s...
Jul 05, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 28
Bunny is in the seaside garden of Anna Pasternak. Anna is well known as a journalist and author. Anna had the privilege of growing up in a Gertrude Jekyll garden as a child, and loves gardens with different spaces or rooms within them. One of Anna’s favourite plants is lilac, as they were her great uncle, Boris Pasternak’s favourite. Boris Pasternak won a Noble Prize for his book ‘Dr Zhivago’. Anna wrote a book ‘Lara: The Untold Love Story that Inspired Doctor Zhivago”, the book revealed for the...
Jun 28, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 27
Bunny chats to Nina Campbell in her London Garden. Nina is the Doyenne of Interiors and is an internationally renown Interior Designer. Nina won the American Fashion award for ‘the Women who has most influenced style Internationally’ and works for many celebs such as Ringo Star and the royals. Nina is Godmother to Geri Halliwell’s daughter. She was born on the day after World War II ended. Nina talks about her life and how she got into interior design. Nina she still enjoys running her business ...
Jun 21, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 26
his week Bunny is in the garden with Tim Hart. Tim switched from a nine year long banking career to starting a hotel in 1979. Now his world famous hotel, Hambleton Hall in Rutland, is renown for its superb cuisine – it has held a Michelin star since 1982, for 44 years, the longest of any restaurant in the UK. Tim gained this just 3 years after opening, while AA Gill’s brother, Nick Gill, was head chef. The gardens Tim has created, which overlook Rutland Water, are also exceptional. Tim explains ...
Jun 14, 2024•47 min•Ep. 25
Today Bunny is in the garden with Nick Mason and his wife, Annette Lynton Mason. Nick is a founder member of Pink Floyd, and his wife, Annette, an actress and sculptress well known for her roles in big hits such as New Avengers, Cross Roads, Casualty, Treasure Hunt and more… They bought their house in Corsham, Wiltshire from the Parker Bowles, after Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles divorced in 1995. Their garden is open on the 8th and 9th June 2024 for charity. Visitors can admire some of Nick’s...
Jun 07, 2024•49 min•Ep. 24
This week Bunny chats to Max Cotton. Max was a political reporter in Westminster for the BBC from 1995. He left politics in 2012. Max decided he would live for twelve months from his small holding near Glastonbury of 5 acres only allowing himself to buy salt. As Max put it ‘I wanted a plain pastoral existence, that a chap in Saxon England would recognise, for its stoic simplicity of purpose.’ Bunny chats to Max about the politics involved in farming, William Cobbett who in the 18th Century recko...
May 29, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 23
In this weeks episode Bunny talks to Bella Hoare in her magnificent garden next to Stourhead, the world famous 18th Century landscape garden created by Henry Hoare (Henry the Magnificent) . Bella is a direct descendant from Henry, and like him she is a banker and gardener but is also an artist. Her exhibition ‘A Different Green’ takes place at The Oxo Tower on London’s South Bank between 22nd May and 2nd June 2024. Bella has lived and worked in Russia, opens her garden under the NGS and is passi...
May 24, 2024•57 min•Ep. 22
